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Saturday, June 9, 2012

Lamplight vs. Spotlight - Can Introverts survive in this business enviornment?

Coming from an Indian culture, my natural Introvert instincts have been further hardened by the culture which expects kids to be seen and not heard. Growing up, the hierarchy of business food chain was reinforced - summarized as Your Superior is always right ! For the last 15 or so years in the US I have been struggling with the society's deference to the Extroverts - Leadership was decided based on the person's "Charisma" and who cares if the content of what he says sucks as long as he is able to say it in style and sound intelligent. I used to spend sleepless nights blaming everybody for the lack of recognition of the value I deliver. To this day I struggle with this facet of life, even though I sort of accepted this fact of life and moved on. So this book Quiet - The power of Introverts in a world that can's stop talking" by Susan Cain caught my I eye and I had to read it !

In a very fact based (Sometimes a little too verbose for my liking), She walks the reader through all aspects of an Introverts challenges and provides some very interesting insights and tips to handle them. Quoting from Apple's Wozniak she lays the foundation to the fact that one Introvert can be much more inventive than a group of Extroverts(Solitude is important key to creativity)

Another interesting part of the book talks about "Introverts are geared to inspect and extroverts are geared to respond". The great Warren Buffet and other introverted Investors case studies clearly illustrate this advantage which Introverts have in making money on the Stock market

Overall, the book is a great read and must read for all the Introverts who have started questioning themselves and their ability to succeed.

One of the other quotes, which I am going to remember for the rest of my life is "The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some It's a Broadway spotlight;for others a lamp lit desk."

I think I belong to a well lit room rather than a desk. But the fact that I should be where I enjoy myself takes away the burden of feeling that I am a failure for not being in the spotlight.